How to put your own power

Today I played against a pusher, you could say. It wasnt very bad. He was very consistent but not that kind of pusher you loose your mind though.

I lost but the thing that caused me more trouble wasnt that everything came back, it was that his shots had nothing on them. Deep, but ver slow.

When I tryed to accelerate the ball normally it would sail long. I hit the ball and try to play within my comfort zone, but i HIT the ball. But against this type of players that just give you junk I seem to have trouble.

I am a 3.5 player. I can hit the ball with some power and good spin. At the end of the match the guy told me I should have won.. but made lot fo stupid mistakes.

What to do in this situation? In one part of the game I was hitting more flat taking the ball with a compact stroke (à lá Tomic) and the worked. I won 8 / 10 points.. but then I stoped doing it.

I played against a similar pusher yesterday. I won 6-3, 6-1. I realized I should have won 6-0, 6-0 but it obviously did not happen. The main problem was putting away high floating short balls. I was overhitting them. In the second set, I added more top spin. But once you come in to attack the short ball (and they are waiting for you to do that), you better put it away for good, and if you don't, be prepared to stay your ground and volley. They are waiting for you to overhit, or get too cautious and not swing freely, then they want to pass you or lob you. You have to swing freely with topspin, and be prepared for them to run like crazy and retrieve it, and then you need to put it away with a volley.

In the backcourt, they are waiting for you to swing hard (or overhead smash) at a high ball and miss, get cautious, and start hitting tentatively, getting tighter and tighter, while they jerk you around. Again, from the backcourt, you have to swing freely, and you have to resist the temptation to slice, and you have to try to place the ball, not go to the middle due to fear.

I played against a similar pusher yesterday. I won 6-3, 6-1. I realized I should have won 6-0, 6-0 but it obviously did not happen. The main problem was putting away high floating short balls. I was overhitting them. In the second set, I added more top spin. But once you come in to attack the short ball (and they are waiting for you to do that), you better put it away for good, and if you don't, be prepared to stay your ground and volley. They are waiting for you to overhit, or get too cautious and not swing freely, then they want to pass you or lob you. You have to swing freely with topspin, and be prepared for them to run like crazy and retrieve it, and then you need to put it away with a volley.

In the backcourt, they are waiting for you to swing hard (or overhead smash) at a high ball and miss, get cautious, and start hitting tentatively, getting tighter and tighter, while they jerk you around. Again, from the backcourt, you have to swing freely, and you have to resist the temptation to slice, and you have to try to place the ball, not go to the middle due to fear.

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I understand that. I was trying. But in the backcourt sometimes when I was hitting freely I overdid it. When I tried to play more conservative it went to the net or landed in.

I play with a low tension (48lb) and my setup is powerful, so i need do accelerate trough the ball in order to give it spin ti control the shot. When I play tentatively that does not happen and I over hit it...

Now, question is how not to become tight? Lots of advice out there like you are not playing for money, don't worry about losing, etc. But you know that losing does not matter, yet you become tight, so such advice doesn't work.

What works are 2 things: keep breathing properly (don't hold your breath), and have a strategy, like I am going to attack from wherever I am, or if I get a moonball, I am going to moonball with even more spin, or I am going to attempt an overhead smash of the moonball after it bounces. If you don't have a strategy, you become reactive. The pusher is waiting for you to hesitate between moonballing a moonball back, or to smash it (something you never practice off a bouncing ball in the backcourt, so likely to go wrong). The hesitation is enough to screw you up. But if you have a strategy (I will moonball it back, or I will reduce the height by topspinning it with a flatter trajectory, or I will smash it with 80% speed only), you remove the hesitation from your side and remove the mind from the equation.

What works are 2 things: keep breathing properly (don't hold your breath), and have a strategy, .......

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A good breathing tip in a book by a guy named Dave Ranney is to make sure you exhale at the proper time. Not just as you strike the ball, but a bit before. He recommends starting a light, sigh type exhale as the ball bounces coming toward you (or just as a serve is being struck when you are returning). You have to continue the controlled exhale until after you have hit the ball.

He claims that many people hold their breath as they hit and this contributes greatly to tensing up. I have found it almost impossible to tense up your body as you are exhaling.

When I remember to focus on this I do play looser and hit more consistently. I haven't practiced this enough to do it without thinking.